Systems and methods for intelligent radiology work allocation

ABSTRACT

An example system to distribute a medical exam to an examiner includes a first interface to display a medical exam identifier associated with a medical exam stored in a patient record database and an examiner availability indicator to be displayed via the first interface. The examiner availability indicator is to be updated via a second interface. The example system includes an exam allocator to automatically allocate the medical exam to the examiner and an assignment tool to be displayed to a user via the first interface and to facilitate assignment of the allocated exam to the examiner. At least one of the exam allocator or the assignment tool is to be communicatively associated with the examiner availability indicator. Upon assignment of the medical exam to the examiner, the medical exam identifier is displayed in an examiner work queue via the first interface, the second interface, and a third interface.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent arises as a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/091,769, entitled “Systems and Methods for Intelligent Radiology WorkAllocation,” filed Nov. 27, 2013. U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/091,769 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[Not Applicable]

MICROFICHE/COPYRIGHT REFERENCE

[Not Applicable]

BACKGROUND

Healthcare environments, such as hospitals or clinics, includeinformation systems, such as hospital information systems (HIS),radiology information systems (RIS), clinical information systems (CIS),and cardiovascular information systems (CVIS), and storage systems, suchas picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), libraryinformation systems (LIS), and electronic medical records (EMR).Information stored may include patient medication orders, medicalhistories, imaging data, test results, diagnosis information, managementinformation, and/or scheduling information, for example.

Medical exam results stored in, for example, the radiology informationsystem, require review by an examining radiologist. Distribution of theexams for review by the radiologist involves consideration of variousfactors, including, for example, radiologist workload, examcharacteristics, and/or hospital efficiency goals. Such considerationsare often present across a network of radiologists and/or hospitals.Efforts to balance radiologist workloads and availability with examsrequiring review and institutional work flow goals are time-consuming,inefficient, and result in inequities in distribution of the medicalexams for review. Further, radiologists lack efficient tools formanaging workflows in view of radiologist availability, specialty,and/or the workloads and availability of other radiologists within anetwork.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Certain examples provide methods, systems, and machine readable storagedevices or storage discs for medical exam distribution. Certain examplesprovide a system to distribute a medical exam to an examiner. Theexample system includes a first interface to display a medical examidentifier associated with a medical exam stored in a patient recorddatabase and an examiner availability indicator to be displayed via thefirst interface. The examiner availability indicator is to be updatedvia a second interface. The second interface to be viewed by theexaminer. The example system includes an exam allocator to automaticallyallocate the medical exam to the examiner. The example system includesan assignment tool to be displayed to a user via the first interface.The assignment tool is to facilitate assignment of the allocated exam tothe examiner. In the example system, at least one of the exam allocatoror the assignment tool is to be communicatively associated with theexaminer availability indicator. The example system includes an examinerwork queue. In the example system, upon assignment of the medical examto the examiner, the medical exam identifier is displayed in theexaminer work queue via the first interface, the second interface, and athird interface. In the example system, the third interface is to beviewed by a second examiner.

Certain examples provide a method for distributing a medical exam to anexaminer. The example method includes retrieving a medical examidentifier associated with a medical exam stored in a patient recorddatabase. The method includes processing an examiner availabilityindicator. In the example method, the examiner availability indicator isupdated via a first interface. The example method includes displayingthe medical exam identifier and the examiner availability indicator viaa second interface. The example method also includes allocating themedical exam to the examiner. The example method includes facilitatingan assignment of the allocated exam to the examiner via the secondinterface. In the example method, at least one of allocating the medicalexam or facilitating the assignment of the allocated medical exam isbased on the examiner availability indicator. The example method alsoincludes displaying the medical exam identifier in an examiner workqueue upon assignment via the first interface, the second interface, anda third interface. In the example method, the third interface is to beviewed by a second examiner.

Certain examples provide a machine readable storage device or storagedisc storing instruction thereon, which, when read, cause a machine toat least retrieve a medical exam identifier associated with a medicalexam stored in a patient record database. The example instructions causethe machine to at least process an examiner availability indicator. Theexaminer availability indicator is updated via a first interface. Theexample instructions cause the machine to at least display the medicalexam identifier and the examiner availability indicator via a secondinterface. The example instructions also cause the machine to at leastallocate the medical exam to the examiner. The example instructionscause the machine to at least facilitate assignment of the allocatedmedical exam to the examiner via the second interface. At least one ofthe allocation or the assignment is based on the examiner availabilityindicator. The example instructions also cause the machine to at leastdisplay the medical exam identifier in an examiner work queue uponassignment via the first interface, the second interface, and a thirdinterface. The third interface to be viewed by a second examiner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example medical exam distributor in anexample healthcare system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the example medical exam distributor ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a first example screen of an example graphical userinterface associated with the example medical exam distributor of FIG.1.

FIG. 4 illustrates a second example screen of an example graphical userinterface associated with the example medical exam distributor of FIG.1.

FIG. 5 illustrates a third example screen of the example graphical userinterface associated with the example medical exam distributor of FIG.1.

FIG. 6 illustrates a fourth example screen of the example graphical userinterface associated with the example medical exam distributor of FIG.1.

FIG. 7 depicts an interactive relationship between the first, second,third, and fourth example screens of FIGS. 3-6.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for distributinga medical exam via an example graphical user interface associated withthe example medical exam distributor of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for acceptingassignment of a medical exam via an example graphical user interfaceassociated with the example medical exam distributor of FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 shows a block diagram of an example processor system that may beused to implement systems and methods described herein.

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description ofcertain examples of the present disclosure, will be better understoodwhen read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose ofillustrating the disclosure, certain examples are shown in the drawings.It should be understood, however, that the present disclosure is notlimited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the attacheddrawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EXAMPLES

Although the following discloses example methods, systems, and machinereadable storage devices and storage discs including, among othercomponents, software executed on hardware, it should be noted that suchmethods and apparatus are merely illustrative and should not beconsidered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or allof these hardware and software components could be embodied exclusivelyin hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware, or in anycombination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Accordingly, whilethe following describes example methods, systems, and machine readablestorage devices and storage discs, the examples provided are not theonly way to implement such methods, systems, and machine readablestorage devices and storage discs.

Also, although the methods, systems and machine readable storage mediumsdisclosed here are described in regards to healthcare applications,including, but not limited to, radiology information systems, it is tobe understood that the present methods, systems and machine readablestorage mediums may also be used to distribute information in any otherindustry/application.

A medical exam conducted on patient requires review by a healthcarepractitioner for purposes of obtaining, for example, diagnosticinformation from the exam. In a hospital setting, medical exams may beordered for a plurality of patients, all of which require review by anexamining practitioner. Each exam has associated attributes, such as amodality, a part of the human body under exam, and/or an exam prioritylevel related to a patient criticality level. Hospital administrators,in managing distribution of exams for review by practitioners, considerthe exam attributes as well as staff availability, staff credentials,and/or institutional factors such as service level agreements and/oroverhead costs. Balancing practitioner workloads in view of the examsrequiring review involves time-consuming efforts that result ininefficiencies and/or inequities in exam distribution across a networkof practitioners. Further, practitioners may habitually decline toreview and/or select to review exams having certain attributes.Load-balancing rules that automatically allocate exams to practitionerswhile allowing for a user, such as an administrator and/or apractitioner, to review the allocation and control assignment of theexams provide for optimization in practitioner workloads in view ofhospital workflow goals and clinical targets.

Additionally, a practitioner may wish to manage his workload, which mayinclude one or more exams for review. For example, a practitioner maywish to designate select times or capacities in which the practitioneris available and/or unavailable to review exams. In some examples, thepractitioner may wish to manage exams distributed to his workload basedon practitioner specialty and/or exam attributes. A system that allowsthe practitioner to create one or more profiles definingradiologist-specific criteria and that distributes exams based on theprofiles provides for a practitioner-centered workflow system. Further,in responding to profile criteria defined by practitioners across anetwork, such a system provides for a dynamic, load-balancing approachto exam distribution and shared workload management.

Disclosed herein are example systems, methods, and machine readablestorage devices and storage discs that provide for workload distributionof medical exams to examining practitioners. The disclosed examplesystems, methods, and machine readable storage devices and storage discscan be used as part of a radiology information system to distributeradiology medical exams to radiologists for review. The examplesdisclosed herein include graphical user interfaces accessible by one ormore examining radiologists and/or administrators.

The disclosed example graphical user interfaces facilitate management ofthe radiologist's work queue by providing for the radiologist to defineavailability, workload, and/or specialty parameters via the graphicaluser interfaces. For example, a first radiologist can create profilesbased on availability, specialty, and/or other parameters associatedwith a capacity in which the first radiologist performs at particulartimes and/or days of the week. In distributing exams to the firstradiologist, load-balancing rules distribute exams to the firstradiologist based on one or more criteria associated with a profile. Thefirst radiologist can view the distributed exams associated with aparticular profile via the example graphical user interfaces. Theexample graphical user interfaces facilitate review of the automaticallocation of a medical exam to the first radiologist based on theload-balancing rules. In some examples, the disclosed examples enableacceptance or rejection by the first radiologist of a distributed examas part of the first radiologist's work queue. In further examples, anadministrator can confirm allocation of a medical exam to theradiologist by assigning the exam to the first radiologist.

The examples disclosed herein also facilitate assignment of an exam to asecond radiologist based on availability, workload, and/or specialty ofat least one of the first radiologist and/or the second radiologist, aswell as in view of exam attributes. For example, the load-balancingrules dynamically respond to the availability and/or unavailability ofthe first radiologist by distributing exams to the second radiologistand/or other radiologists in the network. Also, in the disclosedexamples, the workload of the first radiologist as well as parameterssuch as the availability of the first radiologist are shared with thesecond radiologist via the example graphical user interfaces to promotecollaboration and consultation among the network of radiologistsreviewing exams. In the disclosed examples, information concerningradiologist availability, workload, and/or exam attributes isdynamically updated and shared via interfaces accessible by radiologistsand/or administrators to provide for communicative approach to examdistribution and workflow management.

The examples disclosed herein also facilitate real-time review of examsby automatically allocating an exam to a radiologist for substantiallyimmediate review of the exam. In such examples, rather than the exambeing assigned to the examiner work queue for review at a later time,the exam is distributed for immediate review and reporting by theradiologist via an exam review and reporting screen (e.g., an examreading tool). The radiologist can selectively enable the auto-servingof exams or the distribution of exams to the work queue based on, forexample, the radiologist's availability. Thus, the disclosed examplesaccommodate various approaches to exam distribution and review toincrease workflow management and efficiency.

Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an examplehealthcare system 100 capable of implementing an example medical examdistributor 102. The example healthcare system 100 includes the examplemedical exam distributor 102, a hospital information system (HIS) 104, aradiology information system (RIS) 106, a picture archiving andcommunication system (PACS) 108, an interface unit 110, a data center112, and a workstation 114. In the illustrated example, the HIS 104, theRIS 106, and the PACS 108 are housed in a healthcare facility andlocally archived. However, in other implementations, the HIS 104, theRIS 106, and/or the PACS 108 can be housed one or more other suitablelocations. In certain implementations, one or more of the PACS 108, RIS106, HIS 104, etc., can be implemented remotely via a thin client and/ordownloadable software solution. Furthermore, one or more components ofthe healthcare system 100 can be combined and/or implemented together.For example, the RIS 106 and/or the PACS 108 can be integrated with theHIS 104; the PACS 108 can be integrated with the RIS 106; and/or thethree example information systems 104, 106, and/or 108 can be integratedtogether. In other example implementations, the healthcare system 100includes a subset of the illustrated information systems 104, 106,and/or 108. For example, the healthcare system 100 can include only oneor two of the HIS 104, the RIS 106, and/or the PACS 108. Information(e.g., scheduling, test results, exam image data, observations,diagnosis, etc.) can be entered into the HIS 104, the RIS 106, and/orthe PACS 108 by healthcare practitioners (e.g., radiologists,physicians, and/or technicians) before and/or after patient examination.

The HIS 104 stores medical information such as clinical reports, patientinformation, and/or administrative information received from, forexample, personnel at a hospital, clinic, and/or a physician's office.The RIS 106 stores information such as, for example, radiology reports,radiology exam image data, messages, warnings, alerts, patientscheduling information, patient demographic data, patient trackinginformation, and/or physician and patient status monitors. Additionally,the RIS 106 enables exam order entry (e.g., ordering an x-ray of apatient) and image and film tracking (e.g., tracking identities of oneor more people that have checked out a film). In some examples,information in the RIS 106 is formatted according to the HL-7 (HealthLevel Seven) clinical communication protocol. In certain examples, themedical exam distributor 102 is located in the RIS 106 to facilitatedistribution of radiology exams to a radiologist workload for review. Inan alternative example, the exam distributor 102 can be locatedseparately or can be included in any other suitable device of thehealthcare system 100.

The PACS 108 stores medical images (e.g., x-rays, scans,three-dimensional renderings, etc.) as, for example, digital images in adatabase or registry. In some examples, the medical images are stored inthe PACS 108 using the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine(“DICOM”) format. Images are stored in the PACS 108 by healthcarepractitioners (e.g., imaging technicians, physicians, radiologists)after a medical imaging of a patient and/or are automaticallytransmitted from medical imaging devices to the PACS 108 for storage. Insome examples, the PACS 108 can also include a display device and/orviewing workstation to enable a healthcare practitioner or provider tocommunicate with the PACS 108.

The interface unit 110 includes a hospital information system interfaceconnection 116, a radiology information system interface connection 118,a PACS interface connection 120, and a data center interface connection122. The interface unit 110 facilities communication among the HIS 104,the RIS 106, the PACS 108, and/or the data center 112. The interfaceconnections 116, 118, 120, and 122 can be implemented by, for example, aWide Area Network (“WAN”) such as a private network or the Internet.Accordingly, the interface unit 110 includes one or more communicationcomponents such as, for example, an Ethernet device, an asynchronoustransfer mode (“ATM”) device, an 802.11 device, a DSL modem, a cablemodem, a cellular modem, etc. In turn, the data center 112 communicateswith the workstation 114, via a network 124, implemented at a pluralityof locations (e.g., a hospital, clinic, doctor's office, other medicaloffice, or terminal, etc.). The network 124 is implemented by, forexample, the Internet, an intranet, a private network, a wired orwireless Local Area Network, and/or a wired or wireless Wide AreaNetwork. In some examples, the interface unit 110 also includes a broker(e.g., a Mitra Imaging's PACS Broker) to allow medical information andmedical images to be transmitted together and stored together.

The interface unit 110 receives images, medical reports, administrativeinformation, exam workload distribution information, and/or otherclinical information from the information systems 104, 106, 108 via theinterface connections 116, 118, 120. If necessary (e.g., when differentformats of the received information are incompatible), the interfaceunit 110 translates or reformats (e.g., into Structured Query Language(“SQL”) or standard text) the medical information, such as medicalreports, to be properly stored at the data center 112. The reformattedmedical information can be transmitted using a transmission protocol toenable different medical information to share common identificationelements, such as a patient name or social security number. Next, theinterface unit 110 transmits the medical information to the data center112 via the data center interface connection 122. Finally, medicalinformation is stored in the data center 112 in, for example, the DICOMformat, which enables medical images and corresponding medicalinformation to be transmitted and stored together.

The medical information is later viewable and easily retrievable at theworkstation 114 (e.g., by their common identification element, such as apatient name or record number). The workstation 114 can be any equipment(e.g., a personal computer) capable of executing software that permitselectronic data (e.g., medical reports) and/or electronic medical images(e.g., x-rays, ultrasounds, MRI scans, etc.) to be acquired, stored, ortransmitted for viewing and operation. The workstation 114 receivescommands and/or other input from a user via, for example, a keyboard,mouse, track ball, microphone, etc. The workstation 114 is capable ofimplementing a user interface 126 to enable a healthcare practitioner tointeract with the healthcare system 100. For example, in response to arequest from a physician, the user interface 126 presents a patientmedical history. In other examples, a radiologist can retrieve andmanage a workload of exams distributed for review to the radiologist bythe medical exam distributor 102 via the user interface 126. In furtherexamples, the radiologist can review the exam image data associated withthe exams distributed by the exam distributor 102 via the user interface126.

The example data center 112 of FIG. 1 is an archive to store informationsuch as, for example, images, data, medical reports, and/or, moregenerally, patient medical records. In addition, the data center 112 canalso serve as a central conduit to information located at other sourcessuch as, for example, local archives, hospital informationsystems/radiology information systems (e.g., the HIS 104 and/or the RIS106), or medical imaging/storage systems (e.g., the PACS 108 and/orconnected imaging modalities). That is, the data center 112 can storelinks or indicators (e.g., identification numbers, patient names, orrecord numbers) to information. In the illustrated example, the datacenter 112 is managed by an application server provider (“ASP”) and islocated in a centralized location that can be accessed by a plurality ofsystems and facilities (e.g., hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices,other medical offices, and/or terminals). In some examples, the datacenter 112 can be spatially distant from the HIS 104, the RIS 106,and/or the PACS 108 (e.g., at General Electric® headquarters).

The example data center 112 of FIG. 1 includes a server 128, a database130, and a record organizer 132. The server 128 receives, processes, andconveys information to and from the components of the healthcare system100. The database 130 stores the medical information described hereinand provides access thereto. The example record organizer 132 of FIG. 1manages patient medical histories, for example. The record organizer 132can also assist in procedure scheduling, for example.

The example medical exam distributor 102 identifies a medical examneeding review and facilitates distribution of the exam to an examiner,such as a radiologist. The medical exam can be stored in the data center112 or located in any other component of the healthcare system 100. Insome examples, the exam distributor 102 distributes one or more exams toa radiologist using pre-defined load-balancing rules based on one ormore characteristics associated with an exam, an examiner, a network ofexaminers, and/or healthcare administrators. For example, as part of theRIS 106, the exam distributor 102 provides for the creation of one ormore radiologist profiles via, for example, the user interface 126. Aradiologist profile defines, for example, a radiologist's availability,specialty, preferred exam attributes, and/or other parameters associatedwith radiologist's workload. The exam distributor 102 considers theradiologist's profile in distributing radiology exams to the radiologistas well as to other radiologists associated with the RIS 106. Forexample, a first exam can be distributed by the medical exam distributor102 to a first radiologist based on a specialty profile of the firstradiologist, whereas a second exam can be distributed to a secondexaminer based on the second examiner's availability in view of apriority level of the exam. Further, one or more of the radiologistprofile parameters, such as the radiologist's availability, can beviewed by other radiologists and/or users within the RIS 106 via theuser interface 126 at respective workstations 114.

An identifier associated with the medical exam distributed by themedical exam distributor 102 can be viewed by, for example, theradiologist to whom the exam has been distributed, other radiologistsassociated with the RIS 106, and/or a hospital administrator, via aviewer, such as the user interface 126 of the workstation 114. While theexam distributor 102 can automatically distribute the exam to aradiologist, the exam distributor 102 can also receive user inputs viathe user interface 126 related to confirmation and/or rejection of theautomatic allocation of the exam to the radiologist. The medical examdistributor 102 dynamically responds to user inputs related to, forexample, allocation of exams, creation/modification of radiologistprofiles, and/or other user interaction via the user interface 126 toefficiently distribute exams to a reviewing radiologist's workflow inview of exam attributes. The exam distributor 102 further facilitatesdynamic sharing of exam distribution statuses and/or radiologistcharacteristics, such as availability, among users associated with theRIS 106 to provide for a shared workflow management system.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the exam distributor 102 of FIG. 1. Forexample, the exam distributor 102 can be associated with the radiologyinformation system of FIG. 1. The exam distributor 102 includes adisplay module 200, which may, for example, interact with the userinterface 126 of the system 100 of FIG. 1. As will be described below(FIGS. 3-7), in some examples, the user interface 126 is anadministrator user interface 202 accessible by, for example, a hospitalor radiology department administrator. In further examples, the userinterface 126 is an examiner user interface 204 a-n accessible by one ormore radiologists. The display module 200 can connect to any computerscreen, image viewer and/or other display device known to those skilledin the art. The example exam distributor 102 also includes a user inputmodule 206 for receiving, for example, a user input from one or more ofthe administrator interface 202 and/or the examiner user interfaces 204a-n.

The example exam distributor 102 also includes a profile creator 208.The profile creator 208 provides for the creation and/or modification ofone or more radiologist profiles by a radiologist via the user inputmodule 206. Profiles created via the profile creator 208 define, forexample, a radiologist's specialty, availability, preferred examattributes, workload capacity, and/or other characteristics associatedwith the radiologist at select times or on certain days of the week. Aradiologist can select a profile via, for example, the examiner userinterface 204 a, which defines the radiologist's capacity to receiveexams for review. In distributing exams for review, the exam distributor102 at least partially considers the availability and/or workload of aradiologist based on one or more profiles when allocating and/orassigning an exam to the radiologist.

The example exam distributor 102 includes a rules creator 210. The rulescreator 210 defines one or more rules used in automatically allocatingan exam to a radiologist. In some examples, an administrator define, forexamples, one or more departmental and/or institutional rules via theadministrator user interface 202 and the user input module 206. Also, insome examples, the rules creator 210 creates rules based on radiologistprofiles created by the profile creator 208. In other examples, therules creator 210 defines one or more load-balancing rules based on, forexample, radiologist workload thresholds, radiologist specialties,preferred radiologists, exam priority levels, and/or exam difficultylevels. In implementing the rules creator 210, the example examdistributor 102 optimizes distribution of an exam to a radiologist baseda combination of rules associated with a radiologist profile, one ormore exam attributes, and/or healthcare administration to match an examwith a reviewing radiologist. Also, in some examples where the examdistributor 102 is implemented across two or more institutions, therules creator 102 performs a mapping of identifiers associated with theexams and/or the healthcare institutions to standardize examdistribution between institutions. For example, factors such as exammodality, body part, radiologist specialty, and/or institution locationare considered by the rules creator as part of defining load-balancingrules. Such mapping across affiliated institutions provides forconsistency in applying the load-balancing rules and benchmarks forcomparing workload information between radiologists at differentinstitutions.

As shown, the example exam distributor also includes an allocationmanager 212. The allocation manager 212 automatically allocates an examto a radiologist for review. For example, the allocation manager 212automatically allocates the exam to the radiologist based on one or morerules defined by the rules creator 210. In some examples, the allocationmanager 212 automatically allocates an exam to a preferred radiologistbased on the radiologist's current workload or workload threshold,specialty, and/or availability. In other examples, the allocationmanager 212 automatically allocates the exam to a radiologist based onexam attributes, such as an exam priority level or a service levelagreement requiring the exam to be reviewed within a certain amount oftime. In further examples, the allocation manager 212 allocates the examto a radiologist based on one or more combinations of the aforementionedexam and/or radiologist properties.

The example exam distributor 102 also includes an assignment manager214. The assignment manager 214 assigns an exam to a radiologist. Asdescribed above, the allocation manager 212 automatically allocates theexam to the radiologist. However, prior to the allocated exam beingreviewed by the radiologist, the radiologist and/or an administrator canreview the allocation of the exam to the radiologist via the display 200(e.g., by interacting with the examiner user interface 204 a-n or theadministrator user interface 202). Based on, for example, theradiologist's workload, availability, or an exam attribute, theradiologist and/or the administrator can selectively confirm and/orreject the allocation of the exam to the radiologist or decide toredirect the exam to another radiologist for review. The assignmentmanager 214 facilitates the radiologist's and/or the administrator'sdecision by confirming assignment and/or acceptance of the exam to theradiologist's workflow.

In other examples, the assignment manager 214 assigns the exam to theradiologist without the allocation manager 212 first allocating the examto the radiologist. For example, a radiologist, via the user interface204 a-n can direct the assignment manager 214 to assign an unallocatedexam to the radiologist's work queue. In other examples, one or morerules defined by the rules creator 210 bypass the allocation of the examto the radiologist and cause the assignment manager 214 to automaticallyassign the exam to the radiologist's workflow without requiring furtherconfirmation. In other examples, the assignment manager 214automatically assigns the exam to the radiologist based on radiologistschedules and/or requests for specific radiologists from referringphysicians.

In further examples, the assignment manager 214 automatically assignsthe exam to the radiologist for substantially immediate review by theradiologist without assigning the exam to the radiologist's work queue.For example, the radiologist can select, via the examiner interfaces 204a, to be auto-served exams by the assignment manager 214. In suchexamples, the assignment manager 214 assigns the exam to the radiologistby delivering the exam to a review and reporting screen via the examinerinterface 204 a. The radiologist reviews the exam and can select toreceive another exam for immediate review. In such examples, because theradiologist is reviewing and reporting on the exams in real-time uponexam distribution, the exams are not added to the radiologist's workqueue. However, in some examples, statistics such as review efficiencyand workload are adjusted to account for exams reviewed in auto-servemode. Assignment in the auto-serve mode can be based on theload-balancing rules and/or some other pre-defined rules definingpriority for exams requiring review.

The example exam distributor 102 also includes a database 216. Thedatabase 216 stores information concerning distribution rules, examallocation information, and/or allocation information. The database 216also stores information related to one or more radiologists, such asavailability and/or profiles. In some examples, the database 216 storesinformation associated with one or more affiliated institutions in viewof exams performed at the individual institutions. The database 216 alsostores information provided to the exam distributor 102 via the userinput module 206.

In the example shown, the components of the exam distributor 102,including the display module 200, the user input module 206, the profilecreator 208, the rules creator 210, the allocation manager 212, theassignment manager 214, and/or the database 218, are in communicationwith each other via a communications link 218. The communications link218 may be any type of wired connection (e.g., a databus, a USBconnection, etc.) and/or any type of wireless communication (e.g., radiofrequency, infrared, etc.) using any past, present, or futurecommunication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, etc.). Also,the components of the example exam distributor 102 can be integrated inone device or distributed over two or more devices.

While an example manner of implementing the exam distributor 102 of FIG.1 is illustrated in FIG. 2, one or more of the elements, processesand/or devices illustrated in FIG. 2 can be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the display module 200, the user input module 206, the profilecreator 208, the rules creator 210, the allocation manager 212, theassignment manager 214, the database 216 and/or, more generally, theexample exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2 can be implemented by hardware,software, firmware and/or any combination of hardware, software and/orfirmware. Thus, for example, any of the example display module 200, theuser input module 206, the profile creator 208, the rules creator 210,the allocation manager 212, the assignment manager 214, the database 216and/or, more generally, the example exam distributor 102 could beimplemented by one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logic circuits,programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s)(ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example displaymodule 200, the user input module 206, the profile creator 208, therules creator 210, the allocation manager 212, the assignment manager214, the database 216, and/or the exam distributor 102 is/are herebyexpressly defined to include a tangible computer readable storage deviceor storage disk such as a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), acompact disk (CD), a Blu-ray disk, etc. storing the software and/orfirmware. Further still, the example exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2 caninclude one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to,or instead of, those illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, and/or can includemore than one of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes anddevices.

FIG. 3 shows an example user interface 126 for interacting with theexample exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2. The example user interface 126includes, for example, the administrator user interface 202 and/or theexaminer user interfaces 204 a-n of FIG. 2. The example user interface126 includes one or more screens for interacting with the example examdistributor 102, as will be discussed herein in connection with FIG. 3and FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 (below).

FIG. 3 depicts an example first screen 300 of the example user interface126. The example first screen 300 displays information in associationwith distribution of exams via the exam distributor 102. In someexamples, the first screen 300 is a dashboard providing an overview ofone or more exams requiring review across a radiology department, ahospital, and/or a network of departments and/or healthcareinstitutions.

The first screen 300 includes an exam identifier 302. In some examples,the exam identifier 302 is a visual representation of one or more examsrequiring review by a radiologist. The exam identifier 302 includes, forexample, a name of a patient on which the exam was conducted, an imageof the patient, a procedural code, a body part on which the exam wasconducted, an exam modality, and/or a time at which the exam wasconducted. The exam identifier 302 can also include other, customizableinformation regarding the exam.

Exam attribute identifiers 304, 306, 308 that are representative of oneor more exam attributes can also be displayed on the first screen 300.For example, an exam priority indicator 304 may represent a prioritylevel associated with an exam. If a patient is in critical condition andthe exam requires urgent review by a practitioner, the exam priorityindicator 304 is highlighted. Other exam attribute identifiers 306, 308indicate whether an exam has been dictated by a practitioner, a name ofan prescribing radiologist, a name of radiologist to which the patienthas been referred, whether the exam is associated with a service levelagreement that specifies a time period for review of the exam in orderto receive payment and/or a payment schedule, and/or a relative valueunit representative of a difficulty level of the exam. In some examples,the exam attribute identifiers 306, 308 include an alert displayed onthe example first screen 300 to indicate that an exam is reaching a timelimit for review. Other exam attributes can be selectively displayed,hidden, and/or removed from the example first screen 300. Also, in someexamples, the exam attribute identifiers 306, 308 are shared across theadministrator and examiner user interfaces 202, 204 a-n to provide formonitoring of exam urgency levels across the network and to facilitate aresponse, if necessary, by the administrator and/or radiologists withrespect to prioritizing review of the exams.

The example first screen 300 of the user interface 126 displays one ormore exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314. The exam status identifiers310, 312, 314 are visual indications of the status of the distributionof an exam to a radiologist based on implementation of the examdistributor 102 (including, for example, implementation of the rulesdefined by the rules creator 210 of FIG. 2). Further, the exam statusidentifiers 310, 312, 314 dynamically update in response tocommunicative interactions with the exam distributor 102 via, forexample, the user interface 126.

For example, a first exam status identifier 310 indicates whether anexam has been assigned, via, for example, the assignment manager 214, toa radiologist. A second exam status identifier 312 indicates whether theexam has been allocated to a radiologist, via, for example, theallocation manager 212. A third exam status identifier 314 representswhether, for example, an exam assigned to a radiologist has beenaccepted for review by the radiologist and moved to the radiologist'swork queue (FIG. 4).

The example first screen 300 selectively displays an examiner scorecard316. In some examples, the scorecard 316 is displayed on a differentscreen of the user interface 126. The scorecard 316 includes an examinersummary viewer 318. As shown in FIG. 3, the examiner summary viewer 318includes a table containing information about one or more radiologists,including, for example, name, specialty, experience level, seniority,and/or total number of assigned, allocated, and/or accepted exams. Insome examples, the example first screen 300 provides a messaging and/orother communication tool for users to interact with radiologists listedin the scorecard 316.

A user interacting with the first screen 300 can select to viewadditional information about a radiologist listed in the examinersummary viewer 318. Upon selecting a radiologist, the screen 300 of theuser interface 126 displays, for example, an examiner identifier 320.The examiner identifier 320 includes, for example, an image of theselected radiologist. An examiner availability indicator 322 can also bedisplayed. The examiner availability indicator 322 is a visualrepresentation of an online status of a radiologist. For example, if aradiologist is accessing, for example, the radiology information system106 of FIG. 1, the radiologist can be considered to be available forpurposes of reviewing the allocated exam. The examiner availabilityindicator 322 represents a local presence of the radiologist, a remotepresence, an offline status, and/or another status associated with anavailability of the radiologist. In some examples, the radiologist canselectively set the status of the examiner availability indicator 322,for example, via the first screen 300 or another screen (e.g., anexample second screen 400 of FIG. 4 below). In further examples, theexaminer availability indicator 322 is associated with one or moreprofiles created by the radiologist. For example, the radiologist canselect a profile as an active profile (FIG. 4), which may result in theexaminer availability indicator 322 reflecting the availability of theradiologist based on the selected profile.

Any of the exam identifier 302; the exam priority indicator 304; examattribute identifiers 306, 308; exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314;the scorecard 316; the examiner summary viewer 318; the examineridentifier 320; and/or the examiner availability indicator 322 can bedynamically updated based on, for example, implementation of the examdistributor 102 and/or a user's interaction with the user interface 126,including, for example, the administrator interface 202 or the examineruser interfaces 204 a-n. In some examples, the identifiers, indicators,and/or scorecard of the example first screen 300 are updated to reflectthat a radiologist is reviewing exams in auto-serve mode. Further, anyof the exam or examiner identifiers and/or indicators can be representedon the first screen 300, or any other screens of the user interface 126,by a variety of means of visual display, including, but not limited to,being flagged/unflagged, highlighted/unhighlighted, displayed/hidden,and/or activated/deactivated. The identifiers and indicators displayedon the example first screen 300 can also be selectively tailored basedon, for example, whether the example first screen displays informationfor a radiology department at a hospital or across a network ofhealthcare institutions. Also, the identifiers and indicators of theexample first screen 300 can be selectively represented by more or fewericons. For example, instead of multiple exam status identifiers 310,312, 314 to indicate the distribution status of an exam, a single examstatus identifier can be provided. In some examples, the single examstatus identifier can be selectively expanded or collapsed to providemore details about the exam distribution status.

In operation, for example, the example first screen 300 of the userinterface 126 provides a user, such as one or more radiologists in anetwork, with an overview of one or more exams requiring review andassociated exam attribute information. The first screen 300 furtherportrays information concerning distribution of one or more exams to areviewing radiologist. Additionally, the first screen 300 allows a userto selectively view a summary of one or more radiologists' workloadsand/or availability status. In some examples, the first screen 300provides a snapshot of exam distribution status as well as the factors,such as radiologist availability, that influence workflow distributionof exams by the exam distributor 102. Further, in some examples, a userconsiders the information provided on the first screen 300 in managingdistribution of exams. Thus, the example first screen 300 serves as adashboard for an overview of the exam distribution system and/or alaunch pad for further review of workload allocation.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example second screen 400 of the example userinterface 126 for interacting with the exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2.The second example screen 400 displays, for example, informationconcerning a radiologist's workload based on exams assigned and/orallocated to the radiologist by the exam distributor 102. In someexamples, the second screen 400 serves as a workflow notification pagefor a radiologist by listing exams that the radiologist has beenassigned to review, for example, on a certain day or in a certain order.In further examples, the second screen 400 provides for a radiologist todesignate a capacity in which the radiologist is available to reviewexams, which may determine the allocation of exams to the examiner bythe exam distributor 102 and, as such, the exams that are identified onthe example second screen 400.

In some examples, a user views the second example screen 400 byselecting an examiner identifier 320 associated with a particularradiologist from the examiner summary viewer 318 of the example firstscreen 300 (FIG. 3). In other examples, a user reaches the examplesecond screen 400 via links provided on one or more other screens of theexample user interface 126, or directly upon accessing the userinterface 126.

A first portion of the screen 400 displays identifying information aboutthe radiologist, including, for example, the examiner identifier 320and/or the examiner availability indicator 322. In some examples, aradiologist sets the status of the examiner availability indicator 322by interacting with the example screen 400. The status of the examineravailability indicator 322 (e.g., available, remote, away, offline) canbe selected via, for example, a drop-down menu or another means ofchanging the status displayed by the examiner availability indicator322.

The screen 400 also includes a workload availability identifier 402. Theworkload availability identifier 402 indicates a radiologist'savailability to be allocated and/or assigned exams. For example, basedon one or more load-balancing rules defined by the rules creator 210,the allocation manager 212 and/or the assignment manager 214 (FIG. 2)can refrain from allocating and/or assigning exams to the radiologist ifthe radiologist's workload has surpassed a threshold. Accordingly, theworkload availability indicator 402 can be deactivated to visuallyrepresent that the radiologist is not to be allocated and/or assignedexams. In other examples, the workload availability indicator 402 isactivated to reflect that the examiner is available to receive examsbased on a current state of the radiologist's workload. In someexamples, the status of the examiner availability indicator 322 isdistinct from the workload availability indicator 402. For example, aradiologist can access and/or log into the radiology information system106 (FIG. 1) and thus, have an online presence, but is unable to beallocated and/or assigned exams because of a workload threshold.

A second portion of the example second screen 400 displays anallocated/assigned exam summary 404. The allocated/assigned exam summary404 includes a listing of one or more exams that have been allocated tothe radiologist by the allocation manager 212 (FIG. 2) and/or assignedto the radiologist by the assignment manager 214 (FIG. 2). In someexamples, one or more allocated and/or assigned exams are represented inthe allocated/assigned exam summary 404 by the exam identifier 302and/or the exam attribute identifiers 304, 306, 308. In furtherexamples, the allocated/assigned exam summary 404 displays one or moreof the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314 associated the exam. Theexams in the allocated/assigned exam summary 404 can be attributed toassignment by an administrator and/or a radiologist. The exams can alsoappear in the allocated/assigned exam summary 404 as a result ofassignment based on the radiologist's schedule and/or because theradiologist was requested by a referring physician.

A third portion of the example second screen 400 of the user interface126 displays an examiner work queue 406. The examiner work queue 406contains exams that have, for example, been accepted by the examiner forreview, as will be described below in connection with FIG. 6.Additionally or alternatively, the examiner work queue 406 containsexams that a radiologist has assigned to him/herself to review prior todistribution of the exam to the radiologist by the allocation manager212 and/or the assignment manager 214. For example, a radiologist canview a status of one or more exams via the example first screen 300using, for example, the examiner user interface 204 a. The radiologistcan decide to assign one or more the exams to him/herself without theexam being distributed to the radiologist by the allocation manager 212and/or the assignment manager 214. In other examples, if a radiologistis no longer available to receive exams after reaching a workloadthreshold, as represented by the workload availability indicator 402,one or more exams can be populated in the examiner work queue 406, butthe allocation/assignment summary 404 is empty.

An exam can be represented in the examiner work queue 406 by, forexample, the exam identifier 302, the exam attribute identifiers 304,306, 308, and/or one or more of the exam status identifiers 310, 312,314 associated with the exam. In some examples, the third exam statusidentifier 314 is flagged to reflect that the exam is in theradiologist's examiner work queue 406.

When an exam is in a radiologist's examiner work queue 406, theradiologist has confirmed that he/she will be reviewing the exam and/oris required to review the exam based on a decision by an administrator.The radiologist can review the exam while accessing the radiologyinformation system 106 via, for example, the workstation 114 (FIG. 1).For example, the radiologist can access the exam via the examiner workqueue 406 such that selecting, for example, the exam identifier 302opens the exam in an exam review and reporting screen of the examinerinterface 204 a-n. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, theexam is not added to the examiner's work queue 406, but rather, theradiologist reviews the exam in real-time upon allocation of the examvia the exam review and reporting screen of the examiner interface 204a-n. In such examples, although the exam does not appear in theexaminer's work queue 406, the radiologist's exam-reviewing activity isrecorded by the exam distributor 102.

In some examples, the radiologist may decide to review an exam in theexaminer work queue 406 while working remotely, for example, from alocation where the radiologist is not accessing the radiologyinformation system 106 and/or the user interface 126. In such examples,the example second screen 400 provides for the radiologist toselectively update the examiner availability indicator 322 to reflectthat the radiologist is offline, but working.

Further, the example second screen 400 provides for the radiologist toindicate that the radiologist is working on the exam remotely. Forexample, the examiner work queue 406 of the example second screen 400includes an exam decision tool 407 that allows the radiologist to takeselective action with respect to exams identified in the radiologist'sexaminer work queue 406. As will be described below in connection withFIG. 6, the exam decision tool 407 facilitates acceptance and/orrejection of an exam from the examiner's work queue 406. In otherexamples, the exam decision tool 407 provides for the radiologist tooptionally indicate that he/she will be reviewing the exam offline. Theexam decision tool 407 includes a flag, button, menu selection, and/orother means for the radiologist to indicate via the second screen 400that the exam is being reviewed offline. Such information regarding thestatus of the exam is considered by the exam distributor 102 indistributing other exams to the radiologist and/or monitoring the statusof the assigned exam and/or the examiner's work queue 406. In such amanner, the example second screen 400 allows a radiologist to managehis/her workflow with respect to working online and/or offline.

After working remotely, the radiologist can re-access the radiologyinformation system 106, the user interface 126 and/or the example secondscreen 400. The radiologist can update the examiner availabilityindicator 322 to reflect that the radiologist is online and/oravailable. The exam distributor 102 provides for the radiologist, forexample, to upload information related to the exam that was reviewedwhile the radiologist was offline. Such information is stored in thedatabase 216. For example, the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314;the exam attribute identifiers 306, 308; and/or other identifiers andindicators provided on the example first and second screens 300, 400 canbe dynamically updated in response to the radiologist accessing the userinterface 126 after reviewing an exam while offline. The examdistributor 102 updates and/or synchronizes information about the examreviewed offline upon the radiologist re-accessing the user interface126. In such a manner, the exam distributor 102 dynamically monitors thestatus of the exam and provides current exam information to otherradiologists and/or administrators in the network.

The second screen 400 also includes a profile selector 408. As describedabove, the profile creator 208 (FIG. 2) optionally provides for aradiologist to create one or more profiles. The one or more profiles canbe based on, for example, availability and/or specialty practiced duringcertain times or on particular days of the week (FIG. 5, below). Aprofile affects the distribution of exams to the radiologist by theallocation manager 212 and/or the assignment manager 214. For example,when a radiologist is associated with a certain profile, he/she may beallocated and/or assigned no exams, only a certain number of exams,and/or only exams having certain exam attributes.

The profile selector 408 provides for a radiologist to designate aprofile as an active profile. By selecting a profile on the examplesecond screen 400 (e.g., via a drop down menu), the radiologist candesignate the capacity in which he/she is currently able to receiveexams. Selecting a profile as an active profile updates, for example,the examiner availability identifier 322 and/or the workloadavailability identifier 402 based on the parameters of the selectedprofile. The display status of the examiner availability identifier 322and/or the workload availability identifier 402 is updated on the userinterfaces 202, 204 a-n accessed by, for example, the other radiologistsin the network, to provide an indication of the current availability ofthe radiologist to review exams. Additionally or alternatively, the examdistributor 102 dynamically applies the parameters of the active profilewhen allocating exams to the radiologist as well as to otherradiologists in the network. In some examples, the exam distributor 102distributes exams to the radiologist based on the scheduling attributesassociated with the selected profile.

The profile selector 408 also provides for a user, such as theradiologist, to view the allocation/assignment summary 404 and/or theexaminer work queue 406 for a selected profile. For example, uponselecting a profile via the profile selector 408, the second screen 400dynamically updates to display only exams in the examiner work queue 406that the radiologist is assigned to review when the radiologist isassociated with the selected profile. From the example second screen400, the radiologist can use the profile selector 408 to view examsdistributed on a profile-specific basis.

In operation, the example second screen 400 of the user interface 126provides for a user to view a radiologist-specific workload. The examplesecond screen 400 can be viewed by a radiologist to provide theradiologist with a listing of exams that have been allocated to,assigned to, and/or accepted by the radiologist. Additionally oralternatively, the example second screen 400 enables the radiologist todesignate his/her availability to review exams, by, for example,updating an online status indicator and/or selecting a profile as anactive profile to influence allocation of the exams by the examdistributor 102. In further examples, the example second screen 400 isviewed by one or more radiologists in a shared network to view theallocation and/or assignment of exams within the network. In viewing,for example, the availability of a particular radiologist and/or examsassigned to the radiologist, the example second screen 400 promotescollaboration and/or consultation among radiologists reviewing exams.Thus, the example second screen 400 provides for a radiologist-levelreview of exam distribution and workload allocation and serves as toolfor facilitating shared interactions among reviewing radiologists.

Also, the example second screen 400 provides for the radiologist toindicate that he/she is reviewing an exam offline by updating one ormore status identifiers associated with the exam and/or radiologist'savailability. Further, when the radiologist updates his/her availabilityafter being offline, the exam distributor 102 provides for informationabout the exam reviewed offline to be dynamically updated so that thecurrent status of the exam is accurately reflected across the userinterfaces accessed by the radiologists and/or administrators of thenetwork.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example third screen 500 of the example userinterface 126 for interacting with the exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2.The example third screen 500 provides for a user, such as a radiologist,to optionally create and/or view profiles that are used in managingdistribution of exams to the radiologist in connection. The creationand/or modification of profiles via the example third screen 500 can beimplemented association with the profile creator 208 (FIG. 2). Forexample, as shown in FIG. 5, the radiologist can selectively affiliatecertain times and/or days with a profile by designating portions of theday to be associated with one or more profiles. For example, a firstprofile 502, a second profile 504, and/or a third profile 506 representone or more parameters, including, but not limited to, the radiologist'savailability, specialty, expertise, location, preferred exam attributesat different times of the day. In some examples, one or more of theexample profiles 502, 504, 506 is a default profile, representing, forexample, a default availability and/or specialty of the radiologist. Asdescribed above, in allocating and/or assigning exams to the radiologistand/or other radiologists in the network, the exam distributor 102incorporates the characteristics, parameters, and/or criteria associatedwith one or profiles when implementing the load-balancing rules definedby the rules creator 210.

The example third screen 500 displays, for example, the examineridentifier 320 and/or the examiner availability indicator 322. In someexamples, the radiologist selects and/or updates the status of theexaminer availability indicator 322 from the third screen 500. Theexample third screen 500 can be accessed from the example second screen400, via, for example, the profile selector 408 and/or other linksprovided on the example second screen 400 and/or other screens of theuser interface 126. Also, upon creating a profile via the example thirdscreen 500, the profile appears in the profile selector 408 of theexample second screen 400. In such as manner, the user interface 126allows for a user to optionally create one or more profiles and select aprofile as an active profile for managing workflow and examdistribution.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example fourth screen of the example userinterface 126 for interacting with the exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2.As shown in FIG. 6, the example fourth screen 600 can be accessed fromthe example second screen 400. The exam decision tool 407 associatedwith the examiner work queue 406 provides menu options to facilitateacceptance, rejection, and/or reassignment of the exam, which can befurther implemented via the example fourth screen 600. In otherexamples, the example fourth screen 600 is accessed from the examplefirst screen 300, by for example, selecting an exam identifier 302displayed on the first screen 300.

The example fourth screen 600 includes an exam assignment tool 602. Theexam assignment tool 602 can be accessed via the first screen 300 (FIG.3), the second screen 400 (FIG. 4), and/or any other screens of theadministrator user interface 202. For example, in FIG. 6, the examassignment tool 602 is accessed via the example second screen 400.

In some examples, the exam assignment tool 602 facilitates acceptanceand/or rejection of an exam allocated to a radiologist. For example, theradiologist can interact with the exam assignment tool 602 to accept anexam that has been allocated to the radiologist by the allocationmanager 212. The radiologist can select a menu option provided by theexam decision tool 407 associated with the allocated exam via theexample second screen 400, which causes the exam assignment tool 602 todisplay to facilitate assignment and/or acceptance of the allocatedexam. Upon acceptance of the exam via the assignment tool 602, one ormore of the allocation/assignment summary 404, the examiner work queue406, and/or the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314 dynamicallyupdates to reflect the status of the exam for display on theadministrator user interface 202 and/or the examiner user interfaces 204a-n. For example, the display of the exam identifier 302 associated withthe accepted exam moves from the allocation/assignment summary 404 tothe examiner work queue 406 to reflect that the radiologist has acceptedthe exam. In some examples, upon acceptance of the allocated exam by theradiologist, the exam is no longer available for allocation by theallocation manager 212.

In other examples, if the radiologist declines to review the assignedexam, the exam identifier 302 is be no longer be displayed in theallocation/assignment summary 404 and/or the examiner work queue 406 forthe radiologist. In some examples, the assignment tool 602 provides forthe radiologist and/or an administrator to reassign the exam to anotherradiologist. Upon rejection and/or reassignment, the exam distributor102 automatically allocates another exam to the radiologist. In someexamples, the exam distributor 102 stores information regardingacceptance and/or rejection of allocated exams by the radiologist aspart of the load-balancing rules of the rules creator 210.

In further examples, the radiologist can use the exam assignment tool602 to assign and/or accept an exam that has not been allocated to aradiologist. For example, the radiologist can view an exam identifier302 displayed on the first screen 300 (FIG. 3) representing an exam thathas not been allocated to a radiologist. The radiologist can decide toassign the unallocated exam to him/herself. In such examples, the examassignment tool 602 can be accessed via the first screen 300 byselecting the exam identifier 302 to facilitate manual assignment of theunallocated to the radiologist. Also, in such examples, one or more ofthe allocation/assignment summary 404, the examiner work queue 406and/or the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314 displayed on thescreens of the user interface 126, including the administrator interface202 and/or the examiner user interfaces 202 a-n update to reflect thestatus of the exam.

In some examples, the exam assignment tool 602 is accessed by anadministrator via the administrator user interface 202. For example, insome examples, an administrator plays a role in assigning exams to aradiologist and the radiologist may or may not have the option to acceptand/or decline assigned exams. For example, an administrator viewing thefourth screen 600 via the administrator user interface 202 can decide toassign an exam that has been allocated to a radiologist to theradiologist, based on, for example, the radiologist's workload asdisplayed via the example second screen 400 and/or the metrics providedin the scorecard 316 (FIG. 3). In some examples, the administratorselects an exam identifier 302 associated with the allocated exam viathe example second screen 400, which causes the exam assignment tool 602to display to facilitate assignment of the allocated exam. Using theexam assignment tool 602, the administrator assigns the allocated examto the radiologist. Upon assignment of the exam to the radiologist, theexam identifier 302 appears in the allocated/assignment summary 404associated with the radiologist. Additionally or alternatively, in someexamples, the patient identifier appears in the examiner's work queue406 associated with the radiologist. In other examples, an administratordefines one or more rules via the rules creator 210 for automaticassignment of an exam to the examiner work queue 406 of the radiologist.

In further examples, if the radiologist has declined to review theassigned exam, the administrator can override the rejection of the examvia the exam assignment tool 602 and/or by defining one or moreautomatic rules via the rules creator 208. In other examples, theadministrator and/or the exam distributor 102 can manually and/orautomatically override the radiologist's availability, profile settings,preferred exam attributes, and/or one or more rules defined by the rulescreator 208 using the exam assignment tool 602 to facilitate assignmentof the exam to the radiologist. For example, the administrator canassign an exam to a radiologist whose availability indicator indicatesthat he/she is offline.

In other examples, the radiologist does not have an option to accept ordecline an assigned exam via the exam assignment tool 602. In suchexamples, only the administrator has access to the exam assignment tool602. In those examples, upon assignment of the exam to the radiologist,the exam identifier 302 is displayed in the examiner work queue 406 andcan be viewed, but not removed, from the examiner work queue 406 by theassigned radiologist via the examiner user interface 204 a.

In operation, the example fourth screen 600 provides for the acceptanceof an allocated exam by a radiologist and facilitates inclusion of theallocated exam in the radiologist's work queue. The example fourthscreen 600 also provides for a radiologist to reject and/or reassign anallocated exam and/or manually assign an unallocated exam to theradiologist's workflow. In further examples, an administrator defines adegree to which the radiologist is capable of accepting, rejecting,and/or reassigning an allocated exam through manual review and/or bydefining automatic rules related to assignment of exams.

FIG. 7 depicts an interactive relationship 700 between the components ofthe screens 300, 400, 500 of the user interfaces 126, 202, 204 a-n andusers via one or more administrator and/or examiner workstations 114.For example, a first radiologist can access the examiner user interface204 a at a workstation 114 and provide one or more examiner user inputs702 via the examiner user interface 204 a. Additionally oralternatively, an administrator can access the administrator userinterface 202 at the respective workstation 114 and provide one or moreadministrator user inputs 704 via the administrator user interface 202.Also, one or more radiologists n in a shared network can view, forexample, the examiner availability indicator 322 and/or the examinerwork queue 406 associated with the first radiologist via the examineruser interface 204 n accessed at the respective workstation 114.

As shown in FIG. 7, the first radiologist views one or more of thecomponents of the example first, second, and/or third screens 300, 400,500, 600 via the user interface 204 a. As described above, the examplescreens 300, 400, 500, 600 display components related to examdistribution. For example, the exam identifier 302 is displayed alongwith exam attribute identifiers 304, 306, 308 as well as the exam statusindicators 310, 312, 314. Additionally or alternatively, the firstradiologist can view one or more of the examiner availability indicator322, the workload availability indicator 402, the profile selector 408,and/or, more generally, the allocation/assignment summary 404 via theexample first, second, third, and/or fourth screens 300, 400, 500, 600.

The first radiologist can provide one or more user inputs 702 via theexaminer user interface 204 a. For example, the first radiologist canupdate the examiner availability indicator 322 via the screens 300, 400,500 to reflect that the first radiologist is online, remotely working,and/or not available. The first radiologist can also select a profile502, 504, 506 via the profile selector 408 of the example second screen400. As described above, one or more components of the screens 300, 400,500, 600 updates based on a profile selection, including, for example,the examiner availability indicator 322, the workload availabilityindicator 402, the allocation/assignment summary 404, and/or theexaminer work queue 406. Also, as described above, the user input 702 bythe first radiologist to accept an allocated exam and/or manually assignan unallocated exam via the exam assignment tool 602 dynamically updatesthe examiner's work queue 406.

Additionally or alternatively, the first radiologist can provide a userinput 702 to open the assigned and/or accepted exam in an exam readingtool 706. In some examples, the exam reading tool 706 is a screenaccessible via the examiner user interface 204 a-n that provides forviewing of the exam (e.g., an x-ray) and reporting on the exam by thefirst radiologist. In some examples, the first radiologist provides theuser input 702 to direct the assigned exam to open in the exam readingtool 706 and bypass the examiner work queue 406. In such examples, theexam reading tool 706 provides for substantially immediate review of theassigned exam by the first radiologist. Also, in some examples, thefirst radiologist performs successive review of assigned exams via theexam reading tool 706. For example, a first exam is assigned via theexam assignment tool 602 and opened in the exam reading tool 706. Afterthe first radiologist reviews the first exam, the first radiologistprovides a user input 702 via the exam reading tool 706 indicating thatfirst radiologist is ready to review another exam. In response to such auser input, a second exam that has been assigned to the firstradiologist is directly delivered to the exam reading tool 706 forreview. In some examples, the exam status indicators 310, 312, 314dynamically update to reflect that the exam is being reviewed by thefirst radiologist in an auto-serve mode.

In other examples, the accepted and/or assigned exam is first placed inthe examiner work queue 406, where the exam is represented by the examidentifier 302. The exam is then opened in the exam reading tool 706 ata later time in response to, for example, a user input 702 by the firstradiologist (e.g., selecting the exam identifier 302). In furtherexamples, the first radiologist selectively moves between the examinerwork queue 406 and the exam reading tool 706 to select an exam from theexaminer work queue 406 for review via the exam reading tool 706, returnto the examiner work queue 406 after completing the exam review forfurther workload management, and optionally select another exam forreview via the exam reading tool 706. In some examples, the exam statusindicators 310, 312, 314 dynamically update to reflect that the exam isin the examiner work queue 406 and/or has been reviewed.

Changes to the one or more components of the screens 300, 400, 500, 600in response to the user inputs 702 by the first radiologist can impactthe allocation and/or assignment of exams by the exam distributor 102 tothe first radiologist as well as to one or more radiologists n. Asillustrated in FIG. 7, changes to the one or more components of thescreens 300, 400, 500, 600 in response to the user inputs 702 by thefirst radiologist are dynamically shared via the administrator userinterface 202 and/or the examiner user interface 202 n associated withone or more other radiologists in the network. For example, in responseto a change in a status of the examiner availability status 322associated with the first radiologist from “available” to “unavailable”,the exam distributor 102 automatically allocates an exam that would havebeen assigned to the first radiologist to a second radiologist n. Inother examples, the second examiner n views the examiner availabilityindicator 322 indicating that the first radiologist is available via theexaminer user interface 204 n. In view of the availability of the firstradiologist, the second radiologist n decides, for example, to reassignan exam to the first radiologist, facilitate an exchange of allocatedexams, and/or send a message to the first radiologist.

In some examples, the administrator provides one or more administratoruser inputs 704 related to, for example, assignment of exams, workloadthresholds for first radiologists and/or other radiologists in theshared network, exam attributes, and/or other administrative criteriarelated to exam distribution. The user inputs 704 by the administratorresult in dynamic updates to the components of the screens 300, 400,500, 600 as viewed by the radiologists via the examiner user interfaces204 a-n. For example, upon viewing the allocation/assignment summary 404associated with the first radiologist, the administrator may decide toassign the exam to the first radiologist. Such an assignment dynamicallyupdates the examiner work queue 406 associated with the firstradiologist and viewable via the examiner user interfaces 204 a-n. Inother examples, the administrator can implement one or more rulesmodifying a workload threshold of the first radiologist, as representedby the workload availability indicator 402. Such a change in theworkload availability indicator 402 of the first radiologist impacts thedistribution of exams to other radiologists n in the network by the examdistributor 102. Thus, in such a manner, the exam distributor 102, theuser interface 126, and, more generally, the radiology informationsystem 106 provide for a community-oriented exam distribution andworkload management system.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the example exam distributor 102 of FIG. 2 is shown inFIGS. 8 and 9. In these examples, the machine readable instructionscomprise a program for execution by a processor such as the processor1012 shown in the example processor platform 1000 discussed below inconnection with FIG. 10. The program can be embodied in software storedon a tangible computer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, afloppy disk, a hard drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-raydisk, or a memory associated with the processor 1012, but the entireprogram and/or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a deviceother than the processor 1012 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicatedhardware. Further, although the example program is described withreference to the flowchart illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, many othermethods of implementing the example exam distributor 102 canalternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blockscan be changed, and/or some of the blocks described can be changed,eliminated, or combined.

As mentioned above, the example processes of FIGS. 8 and 9 can beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory(ROM), a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a cache, arandom-access memory (RAM) and/or any other storage device or storagedisk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extendedtime periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarilybuffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, theterm tangible computer readable storage medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. Asused herein, “tangible computer readable storage medium” and “tangiblemachine readable storage medium” are used interchangeably. Additionallyor alternatively, the example processes of FIGS. 8 and 9 can beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a non-transitory computer and/ormachine readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, aread-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, arandom-access memory and/or any other storage device or storage disk inwhich information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended timeperiods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering,and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, the termnon-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined to includeany type of computer readable storage device and/or storage disk and toexclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. As usedherein, when the phrase “at least” is used as the transition term in apreamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the same manner as the term“comprising” is open ended.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 800 to distributea medical exam to a radiologist. The example method 800 implements theexam distributor 102 of FIG. 2. In particular, the example method 800includes a method for assigning a medical exam to a radiologist via theadministrator user interface 202 of FIG. 2. In some examples, theexample method 800 can be performed manually by an administrator. Inother examples, the example method 800 can be implemented via one ormore rules defined by, for example, the administrator via the rulescreator 210 (FIG. 2).

The example method 800 begins at block 802 with identifying an exam thathas been automatically allocated to a first radiologist. In someexamples, the exam is automatically allocated to the first radiologistby the allocation manager 212 based on one or more rules defined by therules creator 210 of FIG. 2. The allocated exam can be represented on ascreen (e.g., a first and/or second screen 300, 400 of FIGS. 3 and 4) ofthe administrator user interface 202 by an exam identifier 302.

At blocks 804-808, the example method 800 includes identifying one ormore characteristics associated with the allocated exam and/or the firstradiologist. For example, at block 804, attributes associated with theallocated exam are identified. As mentioned above, exam attributesincludes, for example, a modality, a body part under review, a prioritylevel of the exam in view of patient criticality, and/or a service levelagreement that specifies a time period for review of the exam in orderto receive payment and/or a payment schedule. One or more of theaforementioned example exam attributes can be represented on a screen ofthe administrator user interface 202 by the exam attribute identifiers304, 306, 308 (FIGS. 3 and 4).

At block 806, an availability status of the first radiologist isidentified. For example, the availability of the first radiologist toreview an exam can be represented on screens 300, 400 of theadministrator user interface 202 by an examiner availability indicator322. In some examples, if the first radiologist is accessing, forexample, the radiology information system 106, the first radiologist isconsidered to be available for purposes of reviewing the allocated examand the examiner availability indicator 322 will be highlighted. Inother examples, the examiner availability indicator 322 reflects thatthe first radiologist is online but unavailable, working remotely,and/or offline.

In some examples, at block 806, the availability of the firstradiologist identified at block 406 is selectively associated with aprofile created using the profile creator 208 (FIG. 2). For example, thefirst radiologist can select a profile by interacting with the profileselector 408 (FIG. 4) and the first radiologist's availability, workloadthreshold, and/or workflow are based on the selected profile. Theexample method 800 includes considering the parameters defined by theselected profile in relation to allocation and/or assignment of theexam.

At block 808, the example method 800 includes identifying theradiologist's work queue. As described above, the first radiologist'sexaminer work queue 406 (FIG. 4) includes one or more exams previouslyassigned to and/or accepted by the first radiologist. In some examples,the example method 800 includes identifying the first radiologist's workqueue in view of other radiologists' work queues. For example, block 808includes identifying one or more metrics provided by the scorecard 316(FIG. 3). An administrator can review the total number of assigned,allocated, and/or accepted exams for the first radiologist relative toother radiologists, as provided in the examiner summary viewer 318.Other metrics, such as priority levels and/or difficulty levels of examsallocated to the first radiologist, can also be considered.

In reviewing the radiologist work queue at block 808, the example method800 includes identifying the first radiologist's history in acceptingexams allocated and/or assigned to the first radiologist (block 810).The example method 800 at block 810 also includes identifying the firstradiologist's history in initiating assignment of exams withoutallocation of the exam by the allocation manager 212. In some examples,the example method 800 at block 810 includes identifying historicalpatterns and trends of the first radiologist in, for example, rejectingassigned exams having certain attributes. The historical informationidentified at block 810 is based on, for example, the profile creator208, the rules creator 210, the allocation manager 212, and/or theassignment manager 214 (FIG. 2).

The information concerning the allocated exam at block 802 and the examcharacteristics associated with the allocated exam and/or the firstradiologist of blocks 804-810 is stored in the database 216 of FIG. 2.Additionally, the information of blocks 802-810 can be selectivelyviewed via the examiner user interfaces 204 a-n.

The example method 800 includes a decision whether to assign theallocated exam to the first radiologist (block 812). A decision whetherto assign the allocated exam to the first radiologist can be based onthe information related to the exam and/or the first radiologistidentified at blocks 802-810. In considering the one or more factors ofblocks 802-810, the example method 800 provides for review of examdistribution in view of load-balancing rules.

At block 814 of the example method 800, a decision is made to assign theallocated exam to the first radiologist. Assignment of the exam to thefirst radiologist is facilitated by the exam assignment tool 602 (FIG.6) and implemented by the assignment manager 214 (FIG. 2). The examidentifier 302 associated with the assigned exam is displayed via theallocated/assigned exam summary 404 and/or the examiner work queue 406associated with the first radiologist and displayed via, for example,the example second screen 400 (FIG. 4). Additionally, in some examples,the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314 and/or the scorecard 316 areupdated by the exam distributor 102 to reflect the assignment of theexam to the first radiologist's work queue. Also, in some examples, theadministrator has reviewed the characteristics associated with theallocated exam and/or the first radiologist of blocks 804-810, butdecides to assign the exam to the first radiologist in spite of one ormore of the characteristics. For example, the administrator can assignthe exam to the first radiologist even if the first radiologist is notcurrently available (e.g., is offline).

At block 816, the administrator has decided not to assign the allocatedexam to the first radiologist. If the exam is not assigned to theradiologist to whom the allocation manager 212 allocated the exam, block816 of the example method 800 involves identifying a second radiologistto review the exam. For example, the second radiologist can beidentified based on availability of the second radiologist (block 818).In some examples, the second radiologist's availability is associatedwith profile created via the profile creator 208 (FIG. 2) and selectedvia the profile selector 408 (FIG. 4). In some examples, the secondradiologist is identified based on the workload of the secondradiologist (block 820). For example, if the second radiologist has aworkload below a threshold defined by the rules creator 210 and/or ifthe second radiologist's work queue 406 is empty or only partiallyfilled, the second radiologist is identified as a candidate to reviewthe exam. Identification of the second radiologist as a candidate can beperformed by the administrator and/or automatically by the examdistributor 102.

At block 822, the exam is assigned to the second radiologist. Assignmentof the exam to the second radiologist is facilitated by the examassignment tool 602 (FIG. 6) and implemented by the assignment manager214 (FIG. 2). The exam identifier 320 associated with the assigned examis displayed via the allocated/assigned exam summary 404 and/or theexaminer work queue 406 associated with the second radiologist anddisplayed via, for example, the example second screen 400 (FIG. 4).Additionally, in some examples, the exam status identifiers 310, 312,314 and/or the scorecard 316 are updated by the exam distributor 102 toreflect the assignment of the exam to the second radiologist's workqueue. Additionally, because the exam has been assigned to the secondradiologist, the exam is removed from the first examiner'sallocated/assigned exam summary 404.

In operation, the example method 800 provides for an administrator toreview automatic allocation of a medical exam to a first radiologist andfacilitates a decision of the administrator to assign the allocated examto the examiner in view of one or more properties associated with thefirst radiologist, the exam, and/or the distribution of exams across thenetwork. Further, the example method 800 enables the administrator toassign the exam to a second radiologist based on the secondradiologist's availability and/or workload. In such a manner, theexample method 800 provides for management of exam distribution in viewof load-balancing rules as well as user review of the application of therules.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 900 for acceptingassignment of a medical exam. The example method 900 implements the examdistributor 102 of FIG. 2. In particular, the example method 900 depictsa method for accepting a medical exam assigned to a radiologist via theexaminer user interface 202 a of FIG. 2. The example method 900 beginsat block 902 with updating the radiologist's availability status. Asdescribed above, when the radiologist accesses the radiology informationsystem 106 (FIG. 1), the radiologist updates his/her availabilitystatus. The examiner availability indicator 322 visually represents theradiologist's online availability with respect to, for example, a localpresence at a hospital or a remote presence.

In some examples, the radiologist is not presently accessing theradiology information system 106, but is working offline. In suchexamples, the examiner availability indicator 322 reflects that theradiologist is not available. In further examples, when the examineraccesses the radiology information system 106 and the radiologist'savailability status is updated to reflect an online presence, theexample method 900 include syncing the work the radiologist completedwhile offline with the radiology information system 106 (block 904). Forexample, if the radiologist started and/or completed review of one ormore exams while working offline, the exam status indicators 310, 312,314 update accordingly to reflect the current status of the exams.

At block 906, the example method 900 optionally includes selecting aradiologist profile. As described above, the radiologist can create oneor more profiles via the profile creator 208. Allocation and/orassignment of exams to the radiologist is at least partially based onthe properties of the profile with respect to radiologist availabilityand/or specialty. The example method 900 includes creating one or moreprofiles (block 908) and/or updating properties associated with one ormore profiles (block 910). In selecting a radiologist profile at block906, the radiologist can view exams allocated and/or assigned to theradiologist by the exam distributor 102 based on the criteria of theselected profile. In some examples, the radiologist profile is selectedby the radiologist interacting with the profile selector 408 via one ormore screens of the examiner user interface 204 a. Informationassociated with one or more profiles is stored in the database 216 (FIG.2).

At block 912, the example method 900 includes identifying one or moreexams assigned to the radiologist by, for example, the assignmentmanager 214 based on, for example, the load-balancing rules defined bythe rules creator 210. In some examples, the exam has been assigned tothe examiner by an administrator as described with respect to theexample method 800 of FIG. 8. An assigned exam is represented in theallocated/assigned exam summary 404 by the exam identifier 302 (FIG. 4).Information associated with one or more assigned exams is stored in thedatabase 216.

At block 913 of the example method 900, implementation of the examdistributor 102 involves a decision whether to allow the radiologist toaccept and/or reject an assigned exam. In some examples of the examplemethod 900, the radiologist can only review assigned exams, updateavailability status, and/or create/update profiles without the option ofaccepting or rejecting an assigned exam. Such examples of the examplemethod 900 can be implemented to prevent a radiologist from repeatedlyaccepting and/or rejecting exams having only certain exam attributes. Ifthe radiologist is prevented from accepting and/or rejecting theassigned exam, according to, for example, one or more rules defined bythe rules creator 210, the example method 900 restricts the radiologistto viewing the assigned exams as described at block 912. If the examplemethod 900 provides for the option for the radiologist to accept and/orreject the assigned exam, the example method 900 proceeds to block 914.

At block 914, the example method 900 includes a decision whether toaccept the assigned exam. For example, a radiologist can decide toaccept or decline an assigned exam based on one or more factors,including, but not limited availability, specialty, and/or examdifficulty level. Acceptance or rejection of the exam is facilitated viathe assignment tool 602 (FIG. 6). The exam distributor 102 storesinformation about the acceptance or rejection of the exam by theradiologist and/or characteristics of the accepted exam in the database216 (FIG. 2) for use in future exam distributions.

If the radiologist decides to accept the exam, the example method 900includes a decision by the radiologist at block 916 whether or not toreview the exam at the present time (e.g., substantially immediatelyupon the exam being allocated to the radiologist and/or upon theradiologist accepting the exam).

In some examples, the radiologist is available to review exams andprefers to have the exam delivered for immediate review via the examinerinterface 204 a-n (e.g., the exam is opened via the exam reading tool706 of FIG. 7) rather than first being delivered to the radiologist'swork queue (e.g., the examiner work queue 406 of FIG. 4). In suchexamples, at block 918, the exam distributor 102 auto-serves theassigned exam to the radiologist such that the exam is presented forreview substantially in real-time. In some examples of the examplemethod 900, the radiologist can selectively decide to have examssuccessively delivered in auto-serve mode by the exam distributor 102.For example, after reviewing a first exam delivered in auto-serve mode,the exam distributor 102 auto-serves a second exam that has beenassigned to the radiologist such that the radiologist's workflowprogresses from reviewing the first exam to the second exam without theradiologist returning to the work queue to access the second exam. Insuch examples, identification of the assigned exams (e.g., block 912),acceptance of the assigned exams (e.g., block 914), and review of theexams (e.g., block 916) occurs without the radiologist leaving the examreading tool 706 of the examiner interface 204 a-n. In some examples,the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314 and/or the scorecard 316 areupdated by the exam distributor 102 to reflect the acceptance and reviewof the exam by the radiologist to inform, for example, an administratorand/or other radiologists in the network that the exam is a part of theradiologist's workload.

In other examples, the radiologist accepts an assigned exam, but choosesnot to review the accepted exam at the present time. For example, theradiologist can review assigned exams as part of managing his/herworkflow, but decide to review and report on the exam at a later time.In such examples, block 920 includes moving the accepted exam to theradiologist's work queue, where the exam identifier 322 associated withthe accepted exam is displayed in the examiner work queue 406.Additionally, in some examples, the exam status identifiers 310, 312,314 and/or the scorecard 316 are updated by the exam distributor 102 toreflect the assignment of the exam to the radiologist's work queue. Insome examples, to review the exam at a later time, the radiologistreturns to the examiner work queue 406 to selectively open the exam forreview via the exam reading tool 706.

At block 922, the exam is rejected from review by the radiologist. Uponrejection of the exam by the radiologist, the exam is reallocated and/orreassigned by the allocation manager 212 and/or the assignment manager214 in accordance with one or more rules defined by the rules creator210 (FIG. 2). In other examples, one or more rules prevent the rejectedexam from being reallocated to the radiologist. As described above, uponacceptance and/or rejection of the allocated exam, corresponding statusinformation is provided to the administrator and/or the otherradiologists of the network via respective user interfaces 202, 204 n.

The example method 900 also provides for self-assignment of an exam tothe radiologist's work queue. At block 924, the example method includesidentifying exams that have not been allocated by the allocation manager212 and/or assigned by the assignment manager 214. An unallocated examis identified, for example, based on a status represented by one or moreof the exam status identifiers 310, 312, 314. At block 926, the examplemethod 900 includes a decision for a radiologist to assign theunallocated exam to his/her workload. If a decision is made to assignthe unallocated exam to the radiologist, the example method 900 includesthe decision whether to review the exam at the present time as describedat block 916 with respect to acceptance of an assigned exam. Forexample, the radiologist can identify an unallocated exam, decide toassign the unallocated exam to himself, and then review the exam inreal-time by having the exam distributor 102 auto-serve the exam suchthat the exam is opened for immediate review (e.g., block 918). In otherexamples, the radiologist selects to add the unallocated exam to his/herwork queue (e.g., block 920). Assignment of the unallocated exam isfacilitated by the assignment tool 602 accessed, for example, via theexample first screen 300, which displays an overview of pending exams.Self-assignment of an exam at block 924 dynamically updates the statusof the self-assigned exam as represented on the respective userinterfaces 202, 204 a-n accessed by the administrator and radiologists.If a decision is made not to self-assign an unallocated exam, theexample method 900 ends.

In operation, the example method 900 provides for a radiologist toreview exams assigned to the radiologist's work queue and facilitatesacceptance and/or rejection of the assigned exams from the radiologist'swork queue. Further, the example method 900 accommodates offline work bythe radiologist by syncing the examiner's work and updating exam statusaccordingly when the radiologist accesses the radiology informationsystem. The example method 900 provides for the radiologist to createand/or update profiles that at least partially control allocation and/orassignment of the exams. Further, the example method 900 provides forflexibility in either allowing a radiologist to accept or reject anassigned exam or limiting the radiologist to only reviewing exams in theradiologist's work queue to facilitate balanced distribution of exams.Implementation of the example method 900 also dynamically updatesrespective user interfaces viewed by other radiologists and/oradministrators of the network to provide for collaborative, interactiveworkflow management.

The example method 900 also provides for flexibility in delivering anexam that has been distributed to the radiologist based on theload-balancing rules. A radiologist can select to review the examimmediately or substantially immediately upon the exam being allocatedand/or assigned to the radiologist via auto-serve mode. Auto-serve modeprovides for the radiologist to maximum his/her time by successivelydelivering exams to the radiologist via an exam reading screen of theexaminer interface, without requiring the radiologist to switch betweenthe examiner work queue and the exam reading screen to retrieve assignedexams. However, the example method 900 also provides for the radiologistto save the exam to the examiner work queue where the exam can beidentified as part of the radiologist's workload and retrieved forreview at a later time. Such examples provide for the radiologist toview the exam in the radiologist's work queue as part of workloadmanagement. The radiologist can evaluate the exam's priority in view ofother exams contained in the radiologist's work queue. Thus, the examplemethod 900 provides for an efficiency-driven approach to exam assignmentand review by accommodating for radiologist workflow preferences.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1000 capableof executing the instructions of FIGS. 7 and 8 to implement the examdistributor 102 of FIG. 2. The processor platform 1000 can be, forexample, a server, a personal computer, a mobile device (e.g., a cellphone, a smart phone, a tablet such as an IPAD™), a personal digitalassistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, or any other type of computingdevice.

The processor platform 1000 of the illustrated example includes aprocessor 1012. The processor 1012 of the illustrated example ishardware. For example, the processor 1012 can be implemented by one ormore integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllersfrom any desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 1012 of the illustrated example includes a local memory1013 (e.g., a cache). The processor 1012 of the illustrated example isin communication with a main memory including a volatile memory 1014 anda non-volatile memory 1016 via a bus 1018. The volatile memory 1014 canbe implemented by Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM),Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory(RDRAM) and/or any other type of random access memory device. Thenon-volatile memory 1016 can be implemented by flash memory and/or anyother desired type of memory device. Access to the main memory 1014,1016 is controlled by a memory controller.

The processor platform 1000 of the illustrated example also includes aninterface circuit 1020. The interface circuit 1020 can be implemented byany type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, auniversal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1022 are connectedto the interface circuit 1020. The input device(s) 1022 permit(s) a userto enter data and commands into the processor 1012. The input device(s)can be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, acamera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touchscreen, atrack-pad, a trackball, isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1024 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 1020 of the illustrated example. The output devices 1024 can beimplemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touchscreen, a tactileoutput device, a light emitting diode (LED), a printer and/or speakers).The interface circuit 1020 of the illustrated example, thus, typicallyincludes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip or a graphicsdriver processor.

The interface circuit 1020 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a network1026 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), atelephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 1000 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1028 for storing software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1028 include floppy disk drives,hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAIDsystems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives.

The coded instructions 1032 of FIGS. 7 and 8 can be stored in the massstorage device 1028, in the volatile memory 1014, in the non-volatilememory 1016, and/or on a removable tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a CD or DVD.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising a processor, the processorconfigured to implement: an exam distributor to: assign a first medicalexam to a first examiner based on a workload availability threshold forthe examiner and an examiner availability indicator for the firstexaminer; deliver the first medical exam to one of a reading tool to bedisplayed via a first graphical user interface or an examiner work queueto be displayed via a second graphical user interface, the firstgraphical user interface and the second graphical user interface to beviewed by the first examiner; receive, via a third graphical interface,a first user input including a first adjustment to the workloadavailability threshold for the first examiner based on the delivery ofthe first exam to the reading tool or the examiner work queue, the thirdgraphical interface to be viewed by a second examiner; automaticallyadjust a workload availability threshold for a third examiner based onthe first adjustment; and assign a second medical exam to the firstexaminer or the third examiner based on the respective adjusted workavailability thresholds for the first examiner and the third examiner.2. The system of claim 1, wherein the exam distributor is to receive asecond user input including one of an acceptance of the first medicalexam by the first examiner or a rejection of the first medical exam bythe first examiner, the exam distributor to further assign the secondmedical exam to the first examiner or the third examiner based on thesecond user input.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the examdistributor is to assign the second medical exam to the third examinerbased on an examiner availability indicator for the third examiner. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein the exam distributor is to update theworkload availability threshold for the first examiner based on thedelivery of the first medical exam to the reading tool or the examinerwork queue.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the exam distributor is todeliver the first medical exam to the reading tool or the examiner workqueue based on a priority level of the first medical exam.
 6. The systemof claim 1, wherein the exam distributor is to update a workloadavailability indicator for the first examiner based on the delivery ofthe first medical exam to the reading tool or the examiner work queue,the workload availability indicator to be viewed via the first graphicaluser interface and the third graphical user interface.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the first adjustment is to one of increase the workloadavailability threshold for the first examiner or decrease the workloadavailability threshold for the first examiner.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein the exam distributor is to: receive a second user inputincluding one of an acceptance of the first medical exam by the firstexaminer or a rejection of the first medical exam by the first examiner;perform a comparison of the second user input to a third user inputincluding one of an acceptance of a third exam or a rejection of thethird medical exam, the third user input to be received by the examdistributor prior to the receipt of the second user input; and generatean exam acceptance trend for the first examiner based on the comparison.9. The system of claim 8, wherein the exam distributor is to furthergenerate the exam acceptance trend based on a characteristic of thefirst medical exam and a characteristic of the second medical exam. 10.The system of claim 8, wherein the exam distributor is to display theexam acceptance trend via the third graphical interface.
 11. The systemof claim 1, wherein the exam distributor is to deliver the exam to thereading tool or the examiner work queue based on a second user inputreceived via one of the first graphical user interface or the secondgraphical user interface.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein if thesecond user input indicates the first medical exam is to be delivered tothe reading tool, the exam distributor is to display the first medicalexam and wherein if the second user input indicates the first medicalexam is to be delivered to the examiner work queue, the exam distributoris to generate an exam identifier for the first medical exam and displaythe exam identifier in the examiner work queue.
 13. A method comprising:assigning, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first medicalexam to a first examiner based on a workload availability threshold forthe examiner and an examiner availability indicator for the firstexaminer; delivering, by executing an instruction with the processor,the first medical exam to one of a reading tool to be displayed via afirst graphical user interface or an examiner work queue to be displayedvia a second graphical user interface, the first graphical userinterface and the second graphical user interface to be viewed by thefirst examiner; receiving, via a third graphical interface, a first userinput including a first adjustment to the workload availabilitythreshold for the first examiner based on the delivery of the first examto the reading tool or the examiner work queue, the third graphicalinterface to be viewed by a second examiner; automatically adjusting, byexecuting an instruction with the processor, a workload availabilitythreshold for a third examiner based on the first adjustment; andassigning, by executing an instruction with the processor, a secondmedical exam to the first examiner or the third examiner based on therespective adjusted work availability thresholds for the first examinerand the third examiner.
 14. The method of claim 13, further includingupdating the workload availability threshold for the first examinerbased on the delivery of the first medical exam to the reading tool orthe examiner work queue.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein thedelivering of the first medical exam to the reading tool or the examinerwork queue is based on a priority level of the first medical exam. 16.The method of claim 13, further including updating a workloadavailability indicator for the first examiner based on the delivery ofthe first medical exam to the reading tool or the examiner work queue,the workload availability indicator to be viewed via the first graphicaluser interface and the third graphical user interface.
 17. The method ofclaim 13, further including: receiving a second user input including oneof an acceptance of the first medical exam by the first examiner or arejection of the first medical exam by the first examiner; performing acomparison of the second user input to a third user input including oneof an acceptance of a third exam or a rejection of the third medicalexam, the third user input to be received prior to the receipt of thesecond user input; and generating an exam acceptance trend for the firstexaminer based on the comparison.
 18. A non-transitory computer readablestorage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause amachine to at least: assign a first medical exam to a first examinerbased on a workload availability threshold for the examiner and anexaminer availability indicator for the first examiner; deliver thefirst medical exam to one of a reading tool to be displayed via a firstgraphical user interface or an examiner work queue to be displayed via asecond graphical user interface, the first graphical user interface andthe second graphical user interface to be viewed by the first examiner;receive, via a third graphical interface, a first user input including afirst adjustment to the workload availability threshold for the firstexaminer based on the delivery of the first exam to the reading tool orthe examiner work queue, the third graphical interface to be viewed by asecond examiner; automatically adjust a workload availability thresholdfor a third examiner based on the first adjustment; and assign a secondmedical exam to the first examiner or the third examiner based on therespective adjusted work availability thresholds for the first examinerand the third examiner.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the machineto update the workload availability threshold for the first examinerbased on the delivery of the first medical exam to the reading tool orthe examiner work queue.
 20. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause themachine to deliver the first medical exam to the reading tool or theexaminer work queue based on a priority level of the first medical exam.